Halloween Cupcakes to Make for Kids

My grandkids aren’t able to trick-or-treat this year. So, I’m trying to make it up to them with mini-Halloween bags of candy and some homemade Halloween cupcakes.

The Halloween bag was a design I cut out and assembled with my Cricut cutting machine. But the cupcakes are my own idea.

For the cupcakes, start with cupcakes and frosting made from scratch, or use a cake mix and canned frosting. My go-to cookbook for easy recipes from scratch is Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts by Alice Medrich.

While cupcakes usually make 12, you can freeze extras, undecorated, for another time.

Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Chocolate cookies OR chocolate cupcake for “dirt”
• Marzipan almond candy dough
• Whole cloves
• Chocolate frosting, canned or homemade
• Chocolate cupcakes, from scratch or a mix

To make the dirt: Break up cookies and process in a food processor to make crumbs. Or crumble one of the chocolate cupcakes with your fingers, if you don’t have cookies.

To make the pumpkins: Knead a 1-inch-thick slice of marizpan between clean fingers to soften. Dip a toothpick into orange gel color and transfer color to the marzipan. Knead in the color; add more color until you reach the desired shade.

Pinch off some of the marzipan and roll into a ball about ¾ inch in diameter. Gently press toothpick parallel to the ball to form pumpkin ridges. Insert a clove for the stem. As in nature, make different shapes – some smaller, some larger; some misshapen.

To assemble: Frost cupcakes. Working over a dinner plate or cookie sheet, spoon chocolate cookie or cake crumbs over the frosting. Alternatively, hold cupcake upside down and dip into a bowl of crumbs.

Arrange two to three pumpkins on each cupcake. If they seem wobbly, use a bamboo skewer to gently dig a hole in the cupcake and press pumpkins in place.

For a Halloween snack or bento lunch, make these creepy fingers from string cheese.

You can make just one type of Halloween cupcake, or make two different types for variety. They start with the same cupcake base.

Tombstone Cupcakes

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Chocolate cookies, OR extra chocolate cupcake for “dirt”
• 1 tube of icing, with fine tip
• Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies
• Chocolate frosting, canned or homemade
• Chocolate cupcakes, from scratch or a mix
• Gummy snakes or worms

To make the dirt: Break up cookies and process in a food processor to make crumbs. Or crumble one of the chocolate cupcakes with your fingers, if you don’t have cookies.

To make the tombstones: Arrange Milano cookies vertically and pipe RIP on the top half of the cookies with tube icing. I used blue icing because I had it, but black would be even better.

To assemble: Frost cupcakes. Working over a dinner plate or cookie sheet, spoon chocolate cookie crumbs or cake crumbs over the frosting. Alternatively, hold cupcake upside down and dip into a bowl of crumbs.

Using a bamboo skewer, dig a shallow slit in a cupcake and gently push the bottom third of a Milano cookie into the slit.

Arrange gummy snakes or worms on tombstone. You can use a bamboo skewer to make a hole and gently insert a snake (cut in half horizontally) into the cupcake so its head is peering out of the “ground.”

What Comes Next?

As we move into the holiday season beyond Halloween, many of us will be forgoing more family traditions. It’s going to be difficult, but we just need to get through this year, for better times ahead.

If you haven’t seen it, please check out my Planning for the Covid Holidays, for some tips that might help.

.

Don’t forget to sign up for my email newsletter! Every Wednesday, I’ll give you a new idea for an activity or insight to nurture the little ones in your life. Come visit!